Letters of America: Robert Cottingham’s alphabet finds a house at OSU

Tuesday, November 11, 2025

Media Contact:
Amy Juarez | OSU Museum of Art Marketing and Communications | 405-744-2783 | amyjuar@okstate.edu

“Robert Cottingham: An American Alphabet” will open on the Oklahoma State University
Museum of Art on Nov. 18.

The exhibition options 26 works by the artist Cottingham, a eager observer of the
constructed atmosphere who playfully constructed the alphabet from pictures he captured
of metropolis life. By utilizing hidden angles, shadows and cropped inspirations, Cottingham
was in a position to remodel seemingly mundane options into famend artistic endeavors.

Cottingham turned to often-overlooked components, comparable to graffiti, commercials and
buildings, for inspiration. By utilizing a long-focus telephoto lens, Cottingham captured
varied indicators and faraway imagery. He then cropped up the photographs to extract particular
letters and used graphite, gouache and oil to create particular person artworks. Together
they type “An American Alphabet,” a group of 26 letters that’s a part of the OSU
Museum of Art’s everlasting assortment.

Carla Shelton, assistant director on the OSU Museum of Art, curated the exhibition.
Shelton has labored on the museum for the reason that items have been donated by the late Tulsa collector,
George R. Kravis II, in 2018. She has labored carefully with the gathering, so she is aware of
firsthand how implausible the works are within the assortment.

“I believe the exhibition has modern relevance as we take into account what ought to and
shouldn’t be preserved for the sake of historic reminiscence, and who will get to make these
selections,” Shelton mentioned. “For instance, historic buildings are sometimes changed by fashionable
ones which may be extra vitality environment friendly and accessible, however what will we lose within the
course of? Even a enterprise updating or returning to a historic emblem raises related questions
about change, id, and what and the way we select to recollect.”

Although every work stands strongly by itself, seeing the whole alphabet offered
collectively presents a robust have a look at Cottingham’s exploration of typography and American
tradition.

With this collection, Cottingham asks guests to re-examine the frenzy of images that
assaults their senses and that they need to parse for that means. In returning to the inspiration
of language, each visible and verbal — the alphabet, he reminds viewers of the ability
of listening to even seemingly insignificant features of every day life.

“Robert Cottingham: An American Alphabet” might be on view from Nov. 18, 2025 to Feb.
14, 2026.

For extra data on the exhibition, schooling alternatives and basic museum
data, go to museum.okstate.edu.

Funding for this season is supplied by Marilynn and Carl Thoma, Lou Watkins and the
OSU Museum of Art Advocates.  

Story By:
Ashton Miller | ashton.miller11@okstate.com